Is it possible to transfer from data scientist / ML engineer from tech companies (e.g. Google, FB) to quant researcher at top hedge funds (e.g. Citadel, Two Sigma)? I think they do a somilar job, analyzing data to extract key insights, and developing algorithms to power strategic decisions. Are there any barriers for the transition?
Yes
Barrier is the industry is slowly shrinking, many places want people with experience in the particular role instead of general data/programming skills.
Why is it shrinking?
It's consolidating because the tech is now quite sophisticated creating high barriers to entry. Market making has been consolidating for years as it gets more efficient. Active management has been very unattractive in the last decade since large caps have done unusually well. I think quant funds will do better in coming years again, but it takes a while for investors to notice the returns improving and switch over.
It’ll be hard. Citadel for example will ask a lot of theoretical statistics stuffs. You better have a PhD otherwise don’t bother. Quant dev would be easier but again your profile really needs to be impressive. Expect LC hard and super deep dive into C++ and system, compiler, etc. First thing to do is try get contacted by headhunters and pass resume screening.
But quant dev is not better than ds and mle at tech in terms of wage and wlb?
Citadel won't hire you unless you've got a fancy private school degree. It happened to me. Straight from their HR to my recruiter "it will be almost impossible no matter how much we like him or how good he is".